| UNISON City of Edinburgh Branch |
|
|
Date: Thursday 20 May 2004 Edinburgh nursery nurses to be balloted on revised offerEdinburgh nursery nurses are being balloted by their union UNISON on a revised offer from the City of Edinburgh. The ballot result will be announced at a meeting of members on Friday 28 May 2004 at 11.00am. Edinburgh UNISON Branch Secretary John Stevenson, said, "After seven hours of hard talks at ACAS, we reluctantly recommended acceptance of the new offer to a meeting of nursery nurses today. This is not because we think this is what nursery nurses are worth, but because we believe that the level of action needed to move the council would not be worth it financially for our members". Under the offer, nursery nurses at the top of the scale would get an increase of £2,010 a year, although UNISON argues this is only worth half of that because staff will have to work an extra 2.5 hours a week. There would also be a lump sum one-off payment. Nursery nurses in Edinburgh had already rejected this. "In the talks this week we managed to get the council to increase the lump sum one-off payment to nursery nurses by 25% to £2,500 at the top of the scale and ensure any deal was paid immediately on return to work. In addition one in three nursery nurses will be eligible for new 'senior' posts going up to about £17,000 a year", added Mr Stevenson. "The lump sum is the best so far in Scotland but the real issue is the grading. If the council had been prepared to move just one point to an extra £400 a year, we could have settled this strike here and now, or even 12 weeks ago. As it is, there is no guarantee nursery nurses will accept the new offer and even if they do, the scars will run deep because of the way they feel their council has treated them. "The astonishing thing is that councils seem intent on sticking to broadly similar offers. If that is what they wanted, why did they not negotiate nationally and avoid all this strife?" asked Mr Stevenson. ENDS Further Information: John Stevenson, Barbara Foubister 0131 220 5655 |
|
